not for an instant
lose sight of the girl with auburn hair.

"She is a very remarkable dancer," he said at last, apologetically. "Do
you know who she is?"

His partner had observed his interest with increasing disapproval, and
she smiled triumphantly now at the chance that his question gave her.

"She is the seventh floor chambermaid," she said. "I," she added in a
tone which marked the social superiority, "am a checker and marker."

"Really?" said Van Bibber, with a polite accent of proper awe.

He decided that he must see more of this Cinderella of the Hotel
Salisbury; and dropping his partner by the side of the lady
recitationist, he bowed his thanks and hurried to the gallery for a
better view.

When he reached it he found his professional friends hanging over the
railing, watching every movement which the girl made with an intense and
unaffected interest.

"Have you noticed that girl with red hair?" he asked, as he pulled up a
chair beside them.

But they only nodded and kept their eyes fastened on the opening in the
crowd through which she had disappeared.

"There she is," Grahame West cried excitedly, as the girl swept out from
the mass of dancers into the clear space. "Now you can see what I mean,
Celestine," he said. "Where he turns her like that. We could do it in
the shadow-dance in the second act. It's very pretty. She lets go his
right hand and then he swings her and balances backward until she takes
up the step again, when she faces him. It is very simple and very
effective. Isn't it, George?"

Lester nodded and said, "Yes, very. She's a born dancer. You can teach
people steps, but you can't teach them to be graceful."

"She reminds me of Sylvia Grey," said Miss Chamberlain. "There's nothing
violent about it, or faked, is there? It's just the poetry of motion,
without any tricks."

Lester, who was a trick dancer himself, and Grahame West, who was one of
the best eccentric dancers in England, assented to this cheerfully.

Van Bibber listened to the comments of the authorities and smiled
grimly. The contrast which their lives presented to that of the young
girl whom they praised so highly, struck him as being most interesting.
Here were two men who had made comic dances a profound and serious
study, and the two women who had lifted dancing to the plane of a fine
art, all envying and complimenting a girl who was doing for her own
pleasure that which was to them hard work and a livelihood. But